Toy Companies Say Added Tariffs on China ‘Tipped the Domino'
At the biggest toy industry trade show in the Western Hemisphere this weekend, toy makers, as usual, displayed seemingly endless rows of stuffed animals, action figures and puzzles, hoping to entice retailers to pick their products.
But this year, the chatter at Toy Fair New York was dominated not by the next Barbie, but a larger game, one of global tactics, that could make most toys more expensive for U.S. consumers.
Almost 80 percent of toys sold in the United States are made in China. Last week, just as toy vendors from across the United States and dozens of other countries started to flock to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center for the annual toy fair, President Trump announced a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods that would come on top of the 10 percent he already imposed a month ago.
Companies big and small — from family-owned brands to household names — are trying to figure out how to manage the new costs related to tariffs. Stationed at a booth lined with plush stuffed animals, Linda Colson, the vice president of sales at Mary Meyer Corporation, said her company, based in Vermont, was in a state of paralysis over pricing. 'We don't know what to do,' she said. 'I think a lot of people in this building are just waiting to see what everybody else is doing.'
Jay Foreman, the chief executive of Basic Fun, a toy manufacturer and distributor in Florida, sells to retailers including Walmart and Target. After Mr. Trump ordered the 10 percent tariff on China in February, Mr. Foreman started thinking of ways to avoid passing those costs onto his customers. So last Wednesday, he met with his company's board of directors to devise a plan that would split the burden: the company, its factories in China and its retail customers would each absorb 3.5 percent of the added cost.
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